


Ariella Wayne

by dxnishmaster



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Abuse, Daddy Issues, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Friendship, How do I tag?, I Don't Even Know, Jos Verstappen's A+ Parenting, Love, Mental Health Issues, Multi, OC, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21822691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxnishmaster/pseuds/dxnishmaster
Summary: Till now there has been nothing in Ariella’s life that has given her more joy then racing. Seriously, how could she have ever lived without?
Relationships: Charles Leclerc/Original Female Character(s), Lando Norris/Max Verstappen
Comments: 20
Kudos: 15





	1. Meet Ariella

It has taken me a lot of courage to put this online. Mostly because English isn’t my mother language and that I’ve always felt a little ashamed of writing about my OC. But a friend of mine gave me some encouraging words and I’ve decided to post it. If no one reads it, so be it, and if you’ve clicked on it and are somewhat interested in my OC Ariella, welcome! I hope I haven’t scared you off too much already. 

This chapter is going to be a little summary of who Ariella is and where she came from. Just a quick note, Ariella is my main OC. Every fandom I’ve ever been a part off Ariella was there. So right off the bat you’ve probably already seen that her last name is quiet familiar. Well, that’s because it probably is. I will only be using the names and some of the aspects of that different fandom, no superheroeing around! I promise! 

**Name:** Ariella Wayne  
**Age:** 19  
**Birthday:** November 25th  
**Born:** ??  
**Raised in:** Gotham City, United States  
**Lives in:** Monte Carlo, Monaco  


********

****

Well, here it comes, the familiar name. Please don’t be scared off by it! I couldn’t change his name/company name because then it would be too distant from my character. It will all make sense in a bit. 

**Father:** Bruce Wayne (adopted by)  
**Mother:** ??  
**Brothers:** Dick Grayson (26), Jason Todd (23), Tim Drake (19), Damian Wayne (14)

Well, you’ve made it this far! Here’s a little summary to let it all make sense. Like I said, no superheroeing around this time. 

Where Ariella was born, no one knows. Why you might ask? Well, that’s because she was found in a forest as a newborn. No parents, no missing cases. Just a little baby in a crib, dumped in a forest with no one around her. She wasn’t the easiest child to work with. So she was constantly placed from orphanage to orphanage to orphanage. Ariella was send to her last orphanage when she was 8, already being given up by the workers. That said she was mostly found on the street, trying to steal some money from the people. One day though, she picked the wrong person. At least, you can’t really say wrong person when it was multimillionaire Bruce Wayne who has a habit for taking troubled kids in. And Ariella soon became one of them.

Without going into too much detail, she and Bruce had a rocky relationship. Mostly because Gotham City isn’t really one of the safest cities around and that Ari has an eye for getting in trouble. So Bruce gave her something to do. A hobby to say the least. Karting. And it appears that Ariella was quite good at that. 

Bruce has always had an interest in fast cars and racing and has always been fascinated by Formula 1. So with the power he had he assigned his company Wayne Tech to start developing an F1 engine that would soon be used by one of the teams. And with Ariella growing older and better at racing, he also had a good test driver to come with it. 

But Ariella and Bruce got into a really heavy fight, and at the age of 16 when she graduated from High School Ariella left the United States to go live in the Netherlands. With the money she could take from Bruce she rented a small place and started going to college in the lowlands. 

About two years later Bruce found out that the team Aston Martin Red Bull Racing had some trouble with their engine supplier Renault, and they were looking for something else. This was the perfect opportunity for Wayne Tech Engines, so they started arranging meet ups.

After some convincing the blue F1 team got quite interested and a meeting was scheduled to show the team what the engines could do. Bruce only had one problem, his plan wasn’t complete yet. For the driver he was going to try and give them with the engine was not in the US right now. So with a lot of bribing he managed to get Ariella back in Gotham City so she could test the engine, and she did not disappoint. Despite Ari going to college she never lost interest in racing, and when Bruce suddenly send her a Racing Simulator she was kinda surprised. But she practiced anyway, and she managed to impress everyone. 

Little did she know that it was Bruce’s plan all along to get her into a seat, and when Red Bull Racing showed great interest in their engine and the deal was almost settled, he came with another deal. A seat for Ariella. 

And the team complied. 

Ariella (oblivious to all of this in the first place), suddenly got the chance of a lifetime, and she of course did not want to disappoint. So with Daniel Ricciardo moving to the rival team and a seat being opened up for the 2019 season Ariella could swoop right in. 

But now she’s gotta prove herself to the whole word, her team and the other (pretty hot) racers. How is she gonna pull that off?

Long summary, I know. But I hope you are interested enough to read a long. The stories itself are not as badly written as this! So please! Enjoy!


	2. The First Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While she is already a little late for her flight to her first every Formula 1 race, she meets someone interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my mother language, so if you see something that should be spelled or said differently just tell me please!

“Are you ready, Ariella?”

Bruce’s voice sounded loud in Ariella’s ears. “Yes father, I’m heading over to the airport right now.”

“You know what you have to do up coming weekend right?”

“Do my best and get the highest score possible.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

She tried to sound interested as he kept on talking in her ear. In the meantime she was packing the last things she needed for her first ever Formula 1 race. Her suitcase was completely packed and the little rucksack she carried with her was getting a little stuffed too. In her head she reread the list she made and dropped her phone charger into the poor little bag.

Okay… that was everything.

In the meantime Bruce hasn’t stopped talking, and Ariella looked at the time. Shit. It was already 13:04. If she wanted to be on time at Airport Nice Côte d’Azur she needed to leave quickly. It wouldn’t be a great first impression to show up late in front of everyone. Not to mention Christian would kill her. 

“You know the engine, you know how to drive it just-”

“Bruce, I’m sorry I really have to go. Talk to you later. Bye!”

Ariella hung up quickly, and she felt peace settle in a little more. Finally Bruce’s voice wasn’t ringing in her ear anymore. She ran to the mirror and gave herself one final look.  


Her snow-white hair was falling in waves next to her face and over her shoulders, really sticking out over the dark blue Aston Martin Red Bull Racing sweater she was wearing.  


“Okay Ariella, you can do this,” she whispered to herself. She grabbed the suitcase, rucksack, car key and passport and ran out of her front door.

When she got downstairs from her apartment she basically threw her stuff in her Aston Martin and jumped in. It was 13:15 and she needed to be there at 13:45. The engine roared in her ears as she laughed to herself. It was still a 35 minute drive. But hey. Those five minutes shouldn’t be a problem, right?

\--

In the end Ariella managed to be there at 13:40, just in time to get her bags and run to the douane. She slammed the doors of her car shut and locked it while she ran inside. 

It was quiet in the airport. She quickly gave her suitcase off at the desk and got herself all checked. The time now read 14:01 and her flight would depart round 17:13, so she had plenty of time to spend.  


While Ariella was walking looked at her plane ticket and noticed that they were flying with one of Wayne Enterprises’ private jets. She frowned as she couldn’t remember Bruce telling her anything about lending his planes for race weekends, but hey, who was she to judge? 

Gate 23, that’s where she needed to go. While she was still walking she put her plane ticket in her rucksack, but before she could close it she walked straight into something. Her face collided with something red and she bounced back, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Her head hurt, but man so did her ass. 

“Est-ce que ça va?”

Whilst rubbing her head she looked up. Her eyes were a little big when she saw what, or rather who she bumped into. 

“Charles?”

Charles was wearing a red Ferrari sweater. From under the hoodie some strands of brown hair came running wild and it felt like his green eyes almost pierced into her soul.  


He raised his eyebrow while he held out his hand for her. “Yeah, that should be me,” he answered with a thick French accent. From what Ariella knew he wasn’t French though, he came from Monaco. Yeah, if she was right he lived only 6 minutes away from her own apartment.

The only thing Ariella could get out was a soft greeting before grabbing his hand and letting herself be pulled up by the Monegasque. The boy that was helping her up was supposed to be one of her biggest rivals on the track, and now he was helping her. She grabbed her bag, quickly closed it and threw it over her shoulder before turning to Charles again.

“I am so, so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she muttered out quickly whilst brushing some dust off of her sweater. Charles just laughed. 

“It’s okay. You’re the new kid, aren’t you?”

“I’m turning 20 at the end of this year, but yeah, I’m the new kid.”

He smiled at her, a genuine smile, something she wasn’t expecting from one of her biggest rivals. Charles held out his hand. “You already know me, but I’m Charles,” he said. Ariella took his hand and smiled back.

“I’m Ariella,” she said and she shook his hand.

He eyed her up completely and returned the gesture before he said, “Nice to meet you Ariella.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

They let go of each other’s hands and they stood there for a while, just staring at each other. 

It must’ve been a minute before Ariella tried to say something again, but she was rudely interrupted by someone yelling her name from behind Charles, followed by a loud “There you are!”

She looked past Charles and saw Max Verstappen walking his way over to them, his face annoyed. Her fresh new teammate stood next to Leclerc, wearing the same sweater as she was wearing. His arms were folded demonstratively in front of his chest. “I thought you were never gonna show up. Where were you? By the way, hi Charles.”

“Sup Max,” Charles said before he also turned his attention back to Ariella. 

Ariella gave both men a somewhat baffled look before shaking her head a bit. “I had my father on the phone, he wanted to go over some things before I left but it took longer then expected. I kinda lost track of time.” 

Max let out a sigh of frustration before grabbing her arm and pulling her away. He was mumbling some things about Christian going to gut them both in Melbourne if he found out she was late. 

Ariella has met Max a couple of times before, and they were getting along just fine. She even dared to call him a friend. She hated him when he was pushing her around the place like he knew everything and she knew nothing. It was somewhat true, but he didn’t need to rub it in or anything. 

While Ariella was being dragged around the airport floors she turned around and looked back at Charles, whom was watching the scene with slight amusement in his eyes. She gave him a small smile and waved at him as a sign of see you later. The Monegasque smiled and waved back, before putting his AirPods back in and going back to whatever he was doing on his phone.


	3. The First Flight (part 2)

Max was still dragging her along and saying all kinds of words when she started to feel like her arm was going to fall off. 

“Max, you’re killing my arm.”

He abruptly came at a halt and let go of her. “Whoops, sorry.”

“It’s okay, where are you taking me anyway?” Max smiled at her cheekily, and Ariella looked past him to see that they were in front of a small restaurant/café. Now it was Ariella’s turn to look annoyed. 

“Seriously Max, the only thing you can think about is food.” He gave her a offended look, but it didn’t last long as he turned around and walked into the café. The Dutchman looked around, saw two people sitting in a booth in the back and walked towards them. Ariella recognised them too. 

As they both sat down she greeted them. “Pierre, Alex.” 

Both men gave her a nod of acknowledgment and the four of them started talking. It was about nothing really, but hey, they still had about 2:45 hours to kill, so might as well join in. The waitress came by and they all ordered something to drink, except for Max who ordered something to eat too. 

Pierre and Alex were both racing for Torro Rosso. For Red Bull it’s kinda like the first stage you go to before going onto the main team itself. Ariella skipped that part. Well, she skipped all the parts and went straight to Red Bull and Formula 1, but she was forced to by her father. No one could know that. Everyone just thought she was a spoiled brat who’s daddy supplies a team and forced them to take the driver as well. She definitely was going to be a target for everyone on the track, but that didn’t bother her.

She’s gonna show them what daddy’s little brat can do. 

Why did Bruce supply the engines for the Red Bull and Torro Rosso teams you might ask. Well, he liked racing. And when you’re a multimillionaire with a successful Tech company behind your name, why shouldn’t you? 

“Ariella?”

Shit, she had been zoning out. She turned to Pierre, whom had apparently asked her something, and gave him a questioning look. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Pierre laughed. He wasn’t as quick to anger like Max and he really had a kind personality. Maybe even too kind for this sport. She liked Pierre a lot, and even though she obviously didn’t see him as much as she sees Max through the week days, they still grew pretty close to each other. Pierre, Max and Alex were the only ones who didn’t look at her like she was going to run everyone of the track. They had seen what she was capable of, and for now she had impressed almost everyone at Red Bull Racing. Everyone except Helmut Marko. The old man was still very sceptic about a woman entering the circuit.

“I asked if you were excited.”

“Of course I am!” 

The waitress came to bring them their drinks, and Max’s food, and Ariella immediately gulped half of her Coke away. 

“And how are you guys? Excited for another season?”

“Well I am,” Alex said leaning back, taking a small sip from his tea. “I’m glad I can finally race on a track again and not in one of those simulators.”

“Yeah, I’ve never really competed on a track before.” Ariella mumbled while stealing a croissant from Max’s plate and taking a bite. He gazed at her with an angry look on his face and said. “If you take something else from my plate again you won’t be anytime soon.”

Everyone at the table started laughing, and the mood was set. Ariella looked at the clock. 2:15 hours left to kill. The small talk continued, the time flied by, and it wasn’t long when the announcer asked them to go to their designed gate. 

\--

They were still talking when they were walking towards gate 23. Ariella tried to ignore the looks everyone was giving her. She couldn’t help but notice all the drivers standing there, ready to board. 

The first one to catch her eyes were Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. She didn’t know what they were doing, but it looked like they were trying to murder each other. Ariella smiled at them. They reminded her of her brothers.

She started to notice some other big names too. Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg, George Russel and a lot more. The only one she really noticed was Charles Leclerc though, whom was casually leaning against a wall while talking to Sebastian. 

The conversation didn’t last long, Sebastian made a joke and Charles started laughing. After that Seb walked away and Charles eyes started scanning the room. He looked at all the drivers standing in at the gate, and suddenly his eyes landed on Ariella. 

He smiled at her, and Ariella sheepishly waved back. Shit… had she been staring? A blush appeared on her face and she looked away. 

“Look, it’s that new girl from Red Bull.”

Slowly everyone started to turn their heads to her, and whispers started to erupt in the room. Dread filled Ariella’s gut. She tried to catch what some of the whispers said, something she probably shouldn’t have done. One of the drivers waiting said something and a lot of other drivers started to laugh. Ariella couldn’t hear what it was, but it was probably nothing good. Max was suddenly standing next to her, hand on her shoulder and giving her a apologetic smile. “Don’t try and listen to them, Ari. We know what you’re capable of, they don’t know shit.”

“Thanks,” Ariella said, and Max were right. They really didn’t know shit. At least she had Max, Pierre and Alex whom believed in her, and that was enough. Suddenly a voice erupted through the speakers of the airport. 

**“Flight WE-747 to Melbourne is now ready to board”**

The doors of the gate opened and slowly people started to walk in. Confidence hit Ariella, and she was ready to go.


	4. The First Flight (part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Italic letters means that the characters are speaking in a different language_

In the plane the atmosphere was great. Drivers talking to each other, looking for their seats. Ariella was also looking for hers. Max was somewhere in the front sitting next to Lewis, and Pierre and Alex were lucky enough to sit next to each other. Whom Ariella was going to sit next to, she had no clue. 

They were one of the last to board the plane. The only ones who were still standing in the gate when team Red Bull and Torro Rosso entered were the Ferrari’s, who were finishing their conversation before walking in.  


Ariella walked all the way to the back and found her seat. She put her rucksack in the rack above her head and sat down. Till now there was no one seated next to her. Maybe this would be a lonely flight for her. 

She pulled out her phone and saw that she had some texts from her family. Her brothers were all whishing her luck, and even their family butler had managed to give her some encouragement. Bruce however hadn’t send her shit, as usual. 

“Well, I think you’re stuck with me for the next couple of hours.”

Ariella looked up, and next to her stood Charles. He was just putting his own rucksack in the rack above them. He had to stretch so much that his sweater rose up just enough to reveal some of his abs. Ariella tried not to look, but damn that boy was looking fine. 

He came down and sat next to her. “At least I can get to know you now. Everyone was kinda trash talking you back there. Sorry for that.”

Ariella just shrugged. “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. And I kinda understand them.” This earned her a surprised look from Charles. She went on. “Yeah, everyone has worked so hard to get here, and here I am. Being forced in by my father.”

Charles raised his eyebrow. “So you don’t actually want to be here?” 

This question shocked Ariella as she realised what she had just said. She jumped a little. “No, no, the opposite. I want to be here, this is a dream come true. But you know, I didn’t go the usual route everyone went through.”

The Monegasque laughed, leaning back in his chair. “I was just kidding, but hey, I heard some promising things about you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, from what I hear you’re going to give me a pretty hard time out there on the track.”

The blonde smiled mischievously. “Well, that’s what I hope anyway.”

They both laughed at that. A comfortable silence formed between them, but it was soon to be interrupted by the voice of the stewardess going through the usual safety measures. When the stewardess was done the plane started moving, and within an hour they were in the air. Flying towards their destination.

Melbourne, Australia. For the first Grand Prix of the year. 

\--

They were in the air for four hours already, and they only had twenty-two left to go. They had to make two stops, but they weren’t allowed off the plane. The only thing the plane needed to do was to refuel before going off again.  


Mostly everyone was sound asleep in their chairs. Somewhere far off Ariella could hear some talking, but she couldn’t make out whom the voices belonged to. Boredom started to settle in. The game she was playing on her phone was getting kinda boring after four hours. So she stood up, grabbed her tablet out of her bag. She swiped around a bit and soon enough Netflix stood open on the screen. 

“What are you gonna watch?”

Charles voice cut through the silence. Ariella kept on swiping to her most recent and found a movie she really wanted to rewatch. 

“Jumanji – Back to the Jungle.”

“What's that for movie?”

“Comedy, action. I don’t know. I watched it at the movie theatre with my friends and I really enjoyed it. So I’m just gonna watch it again.”

“Can I join? I have my own AirPods, so we don’t have to share.”

Ariella finally turned to look at Charles. She smiled at him. “Yeah sure. Just connect them and we’ll start.”

Charles stood up and went for his bag, not noticing that it was not fully closed and grabbed it, throwing some of the content right into his face. 

“Dammit!” He quietly yelled, trying not to wake all the sleeping people up. Luckily no one really noticed. Well, no one except Ariella, whom was frantically trying to hold in her laughter.

He went to the floor and picked up the stuff that had fallen on the ground, except for his AirPods whom he laid down on the little table assigned to his seat. He mumbled some swearwords and French and Ariella chimed in.

 _“Rude!”_ she taunted back, earning herself a surprised look. 

_“You speak French?”_ Charles asked while he put the bag, now fully closed, back up again and sitting down, connecting his AirPods to Ariella’s tablet. 

_“Yes.”_

_“Didn’t expect that from you.”_

_“Well, I speak more then only English and French. I also know how to speak Dutch, Spanish, Italian. Oh, and also some Chinese! Don’t ask me why, my father forced me to.”_

Charles looked at Ariella with wide eyes. _“That’s impressive. I only speak English, Italian and French.”_

_“Most people don’t even speak more than their mother language, so I would still say that’s still pretty impressive.”_

Ariella pulled out her own pair of AirPods and connected them too. 

_“Well let’s start the movie.”_

_“Yeah, let’s start.”_

The movie started, and she leaned back in her chair. She put her iPad in the middle of the two seats so they could both watch it. She put her feet on the side of the chair and leaned back to the middle armrest. Charles almost sat the same way. Their backs touching slightly as one moved around a little. They didn’t care though. They were in the back of the plane, with no one really paying attention to the two of them. And they both didn’t think any of it. They were just comfortably watching the movie in silence. 

Somewhere in the middle of it, Ariella had drifted to sleep. 

Ariella wasn’t kidding when she told Charles that this movie was great. Even though he didn’t really like comedy movies, this one was really enjoyable. 

For him at least, because Ariella let out some soft snores as she moved around in her sleep. He took a chance to look at her. Her hoodie was pulled up over her head, and long strands of blonde hair hung loosely in front of her face. She wasn’t that tall, she could perfectly fit her whole body in her seat. 

But there was something about her. 

Well sure, she was racing for one of their biggest rivals on the track and everything. But she was different. Everyone was talking shit about her, but she was just like everyone here living the dream. It was still kinda unknown how she got here, other than her father buying her in. But she would never have been allowed to race if she hadn’t been able to do it properly. 

Above all that she was really nice to everyone. Charles heard that she could be a bitch sometimes though, and that she is one of the only people at the Red Bull Racing headquarters that wasn’t easily intimidated by the one and only Max Verstappen. Everybody thought that this might end up in a fight between teammates, but from what he could see they were actually pretty great friends. 

Charles didn’t have any hard feeling towards the other drivers. He knew how to separate the things that happen on the circuit from his personal life. That’s how he and Pierre still were such great friends even though they’ve had their clashes on the track every now and then. He had the feeling that Ariella wouldn’t be any different. 

She mumbled something in her sleep, and shifted her body to the other side. Her back now resting against the window and her head leaning against the side of the chair. Ariella was now fully facing him. 

Charles caught himself staring, and quickly turned away. In the meantime the movie had come to an end, and he closed the tablet and disconnected his AirPods. 

He opened his phone and saw that he had some messages from his girlfriend, Charlotte.

_**> how is the flight going?  
> why are you not answering me?  
> charles?!  
> you know what, never mind. go and care for your own business then.  
> you’re still ignoring me aren’t you? ** _

An annoyed sigh escaped his lips. Things have been going like this more and more lately, and he was getting sick of it. At home fights like this were a lot more common. She also was going out a lot of the time with some ‘guy friends’ and wouldn’t come back till the next morning. Charles had a feeling she was cheating on him, but he doesn’t have the audacity to ask about it. It hurt when he thought about it, and somewhere he knew it was true. 

Their relationship was coming to an end. He knew it, and Charlotte probably knew it too. But none of them really dared to break it off with one another. Which led to this, the never ending stalemate they currently were in. 

__**sorry, i was watching a movie <  
** didn’t really pay any attention to my phone <  
what are you doing? <

****

****

She was typing, and typing, and typing… and typing. He knew he was going to have to read a whole book worth of text, about things he had done wrong and probably even more. 

Charles gave one last look at Ariella, whom started to shift and slowly woke up again. Her skyblue eyes looked straight into his, but Charles didn’t bother to look away. “Goodmorning,” he said. Ariella smiled and stretched her arms out. 

“Goodmorning to you too,” she said mockingly, looking at the time. The blonde let out a sad sigh and looked at Charles. “Still 19:30 hours stuck with you.”

“Well, thank you I guess.”

“It was a joke.”

“I had figured that out yeah.”

They both laughed quietly, and after that both drivers went to their phone. Charlotte was still typing, but he found himself not to be bothered and put his phone away. Charles pulled his hoodie over his eyes and tried to get some sleep too. Next to him Ariella had also put her phone away again and was also already readying herself for another good nap.

Maybe these next 19:30 hours weren’t going to be that bad. Ariella was a good companion on the flight, and he was curious on what she was going to bring on the track upcoming weekend. 

We’ll see. 

He closed his eyes and it didn’t take long for Charles to fall asleep too.


	5. Words Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the people who kept on reading this story! I couldn't let you guys wait too long, so here is another chapter.

Till now there has been nothing in Ariella’s life that has given her more joy then racing. Seriously, how could she have ever lived without?

The laser focus when she entered the track, when everything was silent and all eyes were focused on the starting lights hanging above them. Driving at 320 km/h. The sound of all the engines starting to roar as the lights went out and everyone tried to position themselves for the perfect race start. The adrenaline when you could see someone coming close in your mirrors, and the determination to keep them behind you. The feeling of fear when you know you went through that corner a little to fast, hoping your car won’t glide away into the gravel. 

Yes. This is what Ariella wanted. 

“Okay Ariella, you went purple in sector one, keep it up.”

Ariella couldn’t answer. It was the third qualifying-session of this weekend and she kept quiet as she drove over the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Held her head down as she entered turn 3, following the line perfectly as she entered the straight. 

She looked into her right mirror and saw her DRS open. Going hard on the throttle she gave it everything she got. 

This was her team’s home race, and there was a lot of pressure on her to do well. But there was something about this race that made it even more pressuring for her to do her best.

Bruce.

Ariella knew he was watching her from the pitlane. She also knew that in his eyes she was probably doing everything wrong. The first, second and third practice have been a hell for her. After every practice he would take her apart and yell at her, say to her that she wasn’t good enough. 

But she was. 

She was good enough.

And she was going to prove it. 

The blonde neared turn 4, and with around 80 meters to spare she braked. It was just a little too late and she went wide. She tried to get back on her line as quick as possible, but she knew she had lost time with that stupid move. 

She swiftly went through turn 5 and 6, and when she entered turn 7 the board radio came alive once again. 

“You went red in sector two, I repeat, you went red in sector two.”

Ariella exited turn 8 and then she dared to speak. “How many laps do you think we can do after this?”

“If we are correct you should be able to finish one more lap.”

She finished up the last two turns a little messy as she spoke once again. “One more time.”

This was more to herself then to her team in the pitlane, and everybody probably knew it.

The team knew there was a lot of pressure on her shoulders now. Not that it should intervene with her race, but it was a big part of why she was driving the way she did today.

_One more time_

And there she went. Her first sector went marvellous. Turn 1 and the long straight followed right behind, and this time she didn’t fuck up turn 3 like she did last time. 

“Purple in sector one.”

Ariella didn’t say anything back and went through sector 2 way better then she did last time. She drove flawlessly to turn 7 and entered the last sector. Only three more turns to go.

“Yes Ari, purple in sector two! Keep it up.”

“C’mon…” she murmured to herself. 

Ariella started pushing and pushing. Going over the track in a way that no one could. Going through turns with a little too much speed, but just enough to keep her car under control.

Her exit from turn 8 was perfect, her entering turn 9 was seamlessly. 

But then it happened. 

The blonde pushed too hard, and when she entered turn 10 she could feel her car slide way from underneath her. There was no gravel between the car and the barrier, so she went in with full speed. 

Ari couldn’t remember much from the hit, only that she hit the barrier with the left side and that her body felt sore. Only the pain that coursed through her body wasn’t the most important thing on her mind right now. 

Sitting completely still she took in the damage of her car. It wasn’t good. It was absolutely horrible.

_Bruce is going to kill you_

Oh no. Nononono.

“Are you okay Ariella?”

“Please tell me this is just a nightmare.” Her voice barely audible, softly pleading for it to be just a dream. 

“I’m sorry mate, you’re out.”

“No…” She didn’t even notice that she said that, and for everyone else that could hear it, it sounded like nothing more than a painful whine.


	6. Words Hurt (part 2)

From the moment Ariella got out of her car till the moment she walked into the Red Bull garage she couldn’t remember anything. She looked at the leadership board and saw that Max had qualified himself third, Hamilton’s Mercedes on second and Leclerc with his Ferrari on pole position. 

_You could’ve been there too_

Dread filled her gut. It was true. If she didn’t push as much as she had she could’ve had that sweet, sweet pole position. She knew it.

“I heard what happened, are you okay?” Without even noticing him at all Max stood in front of her. Ariella jumped up a little bit as the young Dutchman eyed her up suspiciously. She gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little sore, but it’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure that’s all?”

Damn it. Ari knew she couldn’t lie to Max. She did try though sometimes, but with Max it’s almost impossible. 

Ariella and Max really bonded over the last couple of months. Whenever one of them had a problem they always went to each other. Because they really understood one another. To say it lightly they both haven’t had the easiest childhood, both never really have been given the chance to be a child and be free, and they both have their own fair share of daddy issues. Bruce and Jos are almost on the same level, and when they start comparing them to one another they are almost exactly the same. 

Sometimes Max would come over to her house, venting over his dad. He also has been told he’s not good enough an unhealthy amount of times. He may come over as really confident on TV, but in reality he’s still strong, yes, but also insecure.

In those moments he comes to her house and he starts venting, Ariella just sits down and listens. She knows words can’t make things right when it happens, they just make it worse. And for Max it is enough that he is with someone who understands. And it’s the exact same the other way around. 

So Ariella knew she could tell him, and she wanted to tell him. She opened her mouth and- 

“Ariella!” 

The voice of Christian Horner cut through the air and Ariella didn’t get any more time to think as she turned around, seeing a really angry team boss walking towards her. Her face went emotionless as she greeted him.

“Christian,” she said sternly. Her team boss came to a halt in front of her, anger in his eyes. Max came to stand next to her, to show her that she wasn’t alone.

“What were you doing out there?” Christian asked, trying to keep his voice low and not to sound like he wanted to rip her head off. Ariella didn’t lose her posture and answered. 

“I was trying to do my best.”

“You were taking unnecessary risks which cost you your pole position.”

Ariella didn’t say anything to that, and Christians face softened a little. Aside from him being her team boss she also had a very deep personal connection with him. Not only Ariella but Max too. 

The Brit took a step closer to Ariella and Max took that as a sign to step away a bit. 

“I know there is a lot of pressure on your shoulders this weekend,” he started out, keeping his voice low so no one would hear, “But you can’t permit yourself to make those kind of mistakes. It was reckless and you know it.”

Ari let her façade fall just enough to show Christian her regret.

“I know I may have pushed a little too hard, and I’m sorry for that. I just really wanted to do good and –“

“You failed.”

The voice came from behind Ariella and it definitely did not belong to Christian or Max. A sick feeling washed over the blonde as she turned around, standing face to face with Bruce. Bruce on the other hand didn’t pay any attention to her, and looked at Christian and Max.

“I would like to have a word with my daughter alone please.” 

There was a authority in Bruce’s voice that made the two men comply to his will. Christian left immediately, but Max walked up to Ariella, gave her a little pad on the shoulder wishing her good luck before walking after Christian. Bruce waited with talking until the two men were gone and it was only the two of them left. He didn’t care for the other people walking around the garage, so he turned to her and even though his face didn’t show it, Ariella could see the anger in his eyes.

“What were you thinking?” he said as he stepped closer, his face just mere inches from her face. “This was your one chance to prove yourself and you ruined it not only for yourself but also for the whole team.”

Those words stung and Ariella tried to remain a calm posture as she talked, but the slight unsteadiness in her voice was still hearable. “I’m sorry, I-”

“I’m sorry isn’t going to fix anything. You disappointed me, you disappointed your family, you disappointed your team. You ruined it. _You_. The blame is on no one but _yourself_.”

A crowd had gathered. Not too close that they were standing in a circle around them, but everywhere Ariella could see people standing against pillars looking in their direction. Whenever Bruce stopped talking there was nothing but silence, as everyone tried to listen. She could even see some drivers looking their way, giving her a somewhat pitied look. 

“Bruce it was a stupid mistake, I swear. I wasn’t thinking. It won’t happen again.” Ariella was on the verge of crying, but she held her tears in. 

“That’s what I thought,” he started, stepping close to her so that he was towering over her. “Because if this happens again you won’t be driving next year. I’ll make sure to give your seat to someone who’s actually worth it.”

That was it. Tears formed in Ariella’s eyes, and one single drop slid down her cheek and fell to the ground. 

Bruce didn’t seem to care as he regained his posture and put on a smile, walking away from the paddock. The people that were secretly listening to their conversation went their own way as Bruce passed her by, leaving Ariella standing there all alone. 

_He is right and you know it_

The little voice in her head was the last thing she needed. She ran.

“Ariella!”

Max’s voice was distant in the background as she made her way through the crowd, trying to hold in the tears that were threatening to fall down her face at lightning speed. Everybody stepped aside as the blonde ran past them. Ariella could feel their looks burning in her back as she kept running. 

When she finally saw the toilet room in the distance she sprinted towards it, pushing some people that were too late to step aside for her against the wall. Ari stumbled inside. Tripping over her own feet as she ran into the bathroom stall and locked it. 

Finally the hot tears started flowing. Sobs emerged from her lips as Ariella held her hands in front of her eyes. She let herself slide down against the wall till she was sitting on the ground. Crying away all the words her father had said to her. 

\--

“That’s what I thought. Because if this happens again you won’t be driving next year. I’ll make sure to give your seat to someone who’s actually worth it.”

Max could feel all the hairs on his body perch right up at the sound of those words. His father was good at making him feel bad, yes, but this was just undeniably cruel. 

He had heard the whole conversation. Every time Bruce spoke he felt anger build in himself, especially when Ariella answered him with such pain in her voice. Ariella never showed her weakness, so it hurt Max even more to hear her tremble under his command so much. 

The young Dutchman could see that Christian was trying not to be bothered by the scene that unfolded behind them, but even he flinched when those words were spoken. 

Footsteps could be heard, and Max finally dared to look around to see what was happening instead of only listening. 

Bruce was gone, and Ariella was standing there in the middle of the garage. Around Max everyone started to murmur and whisper things into each other’s ears. People have heard everything. It wasn’t that Bruce took her away so they could talk quietly with one another, no, he put her to shame in front of anyone. 

Max excused himself from Christian, who let him go instantly to comfort his teammate. But before he could go to her she ran away. 

“Ariella!” he tried to yell after her, but the blonde girl was already gone. 

Around 15 minutes later she returned. Nothing seemed wrong with her, even though her eyes were a little red, she was smiling one of her biggest smiles ever. Everybody in the paddock was looking at her, anticipating something of a nervous breakdown or anything. 

But nothing came. 

Instead, Ariella clapped her hands together and spoke happy; “Well, let’s fix this car for tomorrow!’


	7. At first I hated you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, long time no see! I'm sorry for the long wait. With COVID-19 and my exams I really didn't have time to write, but this girl finally got her college degree and is back at it again!  
> \--  
> I immediatly want to warn everybody. The upcoming two chapters might be hard for some readers to read in terms of abuse. So if you're not comfortable with that, feel free to skip it. I felt so bad writing this first part, but the second part is even worse :(. Sorry Max :$

When Ariella and Max first met, they were in a meeting with Red Bull Racing and Wayne Tech Engines. 

Max was seated next to his father, who demanded he’d be there for who knows what, and Christian who were all listing to what the man on stage was saying about the new WTE01 engine that was going to be used next year by the team. Max was trying to listen too, but every now and then his eyes would drift off to his possible new teammate sitting across from him in the room.

She was slouched down in her seat while checking her phone every so often, not really caring what the man in the front of the room had to say about their future engine. He was getting pretty annoyed at her. The chance of a lifetime, a chance that so many people did not get was handed to her on a silver platter. And there she was, slouched down like she didn’t even want to be here. 

And it annoyed Max even more that when Ariella finally got into the car to actually show what it could do, she surprised everyone with what she was able to do. She drove over the track like she owned it, sputtering some things over the radio which improved the car even more. 

When she finally got out, Bruce, Christian and Helmut were already gone. Probably signing some agreements over who their next driver was going to be. When she took off her helmet she looked around the testing facility, still a bored look in her eyes like she had been doing this every day for the last couple of years. 

With an arrogant look on her face she started to walk towards Max, coming at halt in front of him. The girl put her helmet under her arm and eyed Max up and down. “Have you seen my father?” she asked while continuing her investigation.

Max only snorted. “What, can’t go without daddy at your side?” Ariella only shrugged, her face never changing.

“Could ask the same thing about you,” and with that she walked away. 

Max started to shake with anger. If this girl was going to be his teammate, things were definitely going to go wrong in the future, he just knew it.

\--

Ever since it was announced that Ariella and Max would become teammates, Red Bull Racing has been desperately trying to get the two drivers to get along together. But to no avail. 

Whenever they were out in public, everything would be alright. But the moment the camera’s stopped rolling, they would be back to ignoring each other and acting like the other didn’t exist. 

This night though, what the crew hadn't expected was that is was only going to get worse after this night. 

The team had just had their livery reveal and everyone was beyond excited. They were at a local bar in Austria and everybody was getting shitfaced drunk. Everyone including Max and Ariella. 

The two drivers stayed at a rather long distance from each other, trying not to get involved with the others business. But when the even more drinks started flowing, Max had decided to take some of the team members up for a round of arm-wrestling. 

It was that moment where things started to go south. From a distance, Ariella had been watching the whole ordeal take place. Because she was lightly intoxicated, an idea began to form in her head.

Drunk Max could easily be beat, so why not take a shot. 

So with full confidence she left the crew she was talking to behind and walked towards the table where Max was doing a little mini celebration for winning his second match. The defeated crewmember walked away and that was when Ariella took her place at the barstool in front of Max. 

“Third times a charm?” Was the only thing Ariella said before putting her elbow up on the table and gesturing with her hand for Max to accept the challenge. The Dutchman was giving Ariella a somewhat intriguing look. Knowing that with his force he would easily win from the blonde girl. But nevertheless, he put his elbow on the table and grabbed Ariella’s hand. 

The crewmembers looked at each other nervously before signing for the two of them to start. 

Both applied full force upon the first millisecond, trying to get the upper hand on the other.

Max was a little taken aback with the force Ariella was applying, but Ariella didn’t even seem to flinch. So Max decided with his drunken thoughts to take this game the other way.

He decided to start playing mind games. 

He leant across the table and came close to Ariella’s ear, never letting the force against her hand quiver one bit. “Tell me miss Wayne,” he started. “How many dudes did you have to fuck to get your seat?”

Max expected a lot to happen, but what he didn’t expect was for Ariella to be even better at these games. Apparently, Ariella knew more about Max than he thought she’d known. So Ariella went close to his ear and whispered something she will regret the rest of her life. A decision made with a none clear mind. Something she never should’ve said. 

“I think I’ve fucked the same amount of people that know you’re gay. Well… except me of course.”

Max was so shocked at the answer, that he let his hand quiver just one bit, and that was enough for Ariella to slam his hand down to the table. 

The whole crew started to cheer for Ariella’s win, a smug grin forming on her face as she pulled away from Max’s ear and looking him directly in the eyes. 

Max’s face only wore a mask of shock and disbelieve, and right in that moment Ariella knew she had fucked up. Every chance of her and Max ever becoming friends flown out of the window. Her grin slowly started to fade away and her face started to become one of regret. 

The Dutchman stood up with full force, shoving his chair to the ground as his face went emotionless. The crew didn’t even care, as they had already moved on from the game and had started drinking again.

“Max stop!” Ariella tried as she stood up and desperately grabbed for his arm, but Max was already on his way of storming out. She tried to catch up with him, but suddenly got pulled back by some crewmembers, letting Max get out of her sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ariella really didn't mean it like that Max IM SORRY  
> \--  
> The next part will be up soon... be ready for something folks.


	8. But now I don't know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second mention of abuse, and only a little blood. You have been warned.

Did Ariella feel bad after the bar incident? Oh hell yes. It was a low blow. No… not even a low blow, a pathetically low blow, even for her. She wanted to apologize so badly to the Dutchman, but Max had been avoiding her like the plague. Whenever she came too close Max found away to get away from her as soon as possible. Where she thought the Dutchman was no stranger to confrontation, this might’ve been a little to much confrontation for his liking. 

After the livery reveal in Austria, Red Bull Racing had taken everyone back to Milton Keynes to do some last changes before the season was going to kick off in Australia. Everybody was there, as the start of the season was creeping closer, everybody’s nerves started kicking in too. Even Bruce and Jos were present, taking a look at how the factory was doing, but most importantly, what their kids were doing. 

Wherever Max and Ariella went, their parents would be right there with them. Making it even harder for Ariella to get Max alone. And whenever she saw Max lingering around the factory alone for just a moment, he would just be gone again.

After a long day of even more testing, Ariella finally found the peace to go back to the hotel. Max finished a couple hours earlier, already being back at the hotel. The reason why Ariella had to stay longer was because she was a woman, some things needed some… extra altering for her to fit in. Yeah… it sucks. 

She greeted the lady at the Check-In desk with only barely of a smile before she speeded to the elevator. The blonde looked around the lobby if she could see a glimpse of Max there, but he was probably already in his room, trying to find new ways to avoid her the next day.

The moment she finally entered her room, she immediately let herself fall into her bed and let out a big sigh. Tomorrow is another day at the factory, and another day to try and apologize to Max. 

Ari lazily pulled her shoes and socks of her feet before she curled up on the bed. She let out one last big yawn before sleep took over her mind and everything went black. 

\--

“Kop dicht!”

Ariella sat up in her bed when a loud bang accompanied with a lot of yelling startled her out of her slumber. She froze when she recognized whom the yelling voices belonged to, and she froze in her bed as she listened on. 

“Ondankbaar sekreet. Ik heb alles voor je gedaan en dan durf je noch zo tegen mij te praten!”

BANG

Jos and Max. Well… more Jos than Max. Max’s voice was down to a small whimper, too soft for Ariella to make out what he was saying. 

“Ik zie je morgen wel weer. Als je morgen weer zo tegen me durft te praten is dit nog maar het minste van wat er zal gebeuren.”

And with that she could hear a door open and it almost immediately being slammed shut again before footsteps stomped out of the hallway. 

Ariella finally let out the breath she apparently was holding.

What just happened?

Worry started to fill her body as she finally got out of her bed and looked at the wall where the yelling and banging had come from. She needed to check if everything was alright.

Ari grabbed the socks and shoes she had discarded on the floor a while earlier before she put them on again. In the meantime, she could hear the door of Max’s room open and hear the shuffling of feet on the hotel floor towards the elevator. She quickly got her coat and ran out of the door. When she looked at her left she could see Max, standing in the elevator with his hoodie covering most of his face, his shoulders slightly heaving. 

“Max!” she yelled. This finally caught Max’s attention, and when he saw whom the voice belonged too he quickly pressed the button to close the elevator doors, but Ariella was too quick.

The doors started closing, but Ariella was already sprinting towards it and just before the doors could slam shut, she put her arm in between it so it opened up again. A little out of breath, she stepped in and before Max could step out, the doors closed and the lift went up.

“Max… hi… hold on a second…” she said panting. Running without a warming up might’ve been not that smart.

“Get out.” Max not so kindly requested.

“No please, Max. I heard all the stuff coming from your room so I came to see if you were alright and I still wanted to apologize for… oh my god Max what happened?”

Ariella finally looked Max in his eyes from where she was still trying to catch her breath and saw that he had a big cut above his eyes, and when she looked a little closer she could see that he had been crying by how red and swollen his eyes were. The cut luckily wasn’t bleeding, but the worry Ariella was feeling only got worse. 

Max gritted his teeth. “It’s none of your business.”

Right at that moment, the elevator doors swung open and Max walked out. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking towards the door at the end of the small hallway. Ariella strolled after him onto the rooftop of the hotel.

The rooftop was a cosy place with some couches and dim lighting coming from some lanterns that were on, but for the rest all the light came from the full moon shining above them. Ariella wanted to admire the view, but she had more important things to do right now. There was nobody else on the rooftop with them, so Ari decided to not let Max get off that easily. 

“Max it is my business since I heard the whole fucking thing take place. Can you please tell me what happened. Please? I know we don’t really like each other but I’m worried.”

Max sat down in one of the couches and turned his gaze to the ground. “Well if you heard the whole thing why do I need to talk? You already know anyways.”

Ariella sat down next to him, scooting a little further away from Max when he visibly flinched. He didn’t walk away, so that was a first. 

“Yeah I thought the two of you just had a fight, a verbal fight, not something like… this.” 

Max scoffed at this. 

“Well now you know. Gonna use it against me? You’re pretty good at that apparently.”

This hurt Ariella, but it was nothing but deserved. She sighed. “No, of course not. I know how you feel.”

“Like you do.”

This time it was Ariella’s time to scoff at Max. “Yeah, I actually do. Bruce isn’t the man he appears to be all the time.”

Max finally looked at Ariella. He eyed her up before he looked her straight in the eyes with pity showing out of his. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. Max, it was really out of line for me to say that thing in the bar. I never should’ve said it. I really shouldn’t have.”

Max looked away again, fiddling with the hem of the hoodie he was wearing. “How did figure it out?”

A somewhat sly smile appeared on Ariella’s face. “I don’t know. It was mostly a bluff. It was to send you off guard so I could win, but the moment I saw your reaction I kinda knew I messed up big time. But even so, I never should’ve used it against you, even if it was true or not. I’m so, so sorry Max.”

This got Max smiling a little bit. “I’m sorry too. I also shouldn’t have said that thing I said at the bar.”

A big smile appeared on Ariella’s face. “All forgiven.”

“Yeah. You too.”

“So… let bygones be bygones?”

Max chuckled at this before he looked at Ariella again. “Sure.” They stayed like that for a while, but by the way Max’s eyebrows moved the cut got open again, and a small line of blood was forming on his face down his nose and to his mouth. His hand immediately shot up to the cut to stop the bleeding, and Ariella immediately sprung into action. 

There was a small stand where they stored some supplies for dinner, and soon enough Ariella came rushing back with some napkins. She took one of the small pile and leant towards Max. “Can I?” she carefully asked.  
Max only nodded and removed his hood, fully revealing the cut. 

Ariella carefully started to wipe the blood away and put pressure on the cut. She stayed like that for a while so that the wound could close again. After that she threw away the dirty napkins and kept the other ones on the table just to be sure. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t jump in sooner.”

“Don’t worry. It isn’t the first time it happened. I’m only worrying about how I’m going to cover it up tomorrow at the factory.”

Ariella wanted to say a lot at that moment. About how Jos was an asshole and how the man should fuck off out of his life. But seeing how Max was not dealing so well with it and how she couldn’t even do that with her own father, she decided it was a conversation for another day. So for now, she settled for something less. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover you.”

They stayed at the roof for a little while. Talking small talk about the first race and Max giving Ariella tips. As the night went on, they both started to loosen up a little bit and the talks started to get more fun. Smiling and laughing about what the other had to say. 

“Okay okay okay. What do you call a kiwi on a ski.”

Max looked at Ariella with a dumbfounded look. “Are you serious?”

“A skiwi.”

It was so stupid that Max couldn’t keep his laughter in anymore. Ariella laughed right with him, coughing as she did so because her lungs hurt from their previous laughing laughing fits. 

Max wiped the laughing tears out of his eyes. “Thank you Ari, I really needed this.”

Ari’s heart only swelled at the nickname he gave her overnight. “It’s no problem. That’s what teammates do right?”

Max’s smile only grew bigger. “Yeah, that’s what teammates do.”

They laughed for another bit before they both started yawning. “Okay, I really think we should head to bed. What time is it?” Ariella asked.

Max took his phone out his pocket and looked at the screen dumbfounded. “It’s, fuck… it’s already 01:30.”

Ariella’s eyes went big. “Okay fuck we really need to get back.”

They kept laughing as they made their way back to their hotel rooms. Standing in front of their designated doors they stopped and looked at each other. 

“Well, goodnight Ari. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you too. At what time does your alarm go off?”

“07:30. Why?”

“Can you bang on my door? I’m really scared I’m going to sleep through my alarm.”

“Yeah sure. But for real, goodnight.”

“Goodnight Maxy.” Ari said before walking in. She could hear a faint; “Oh my god please don’t call me that,” before she shut the door and grinned. She let herself fall onto her bed for another time that day, and this time she went to sleep smiling. Knowing that things between her an Max were going to be alright. 

\--  
“Ariella, wake up, we have to leave in an hour. And turn your alarm off goddamnit.”

Ariella groaned as she heard Max’s voice through the door and her alarm screeching for attention. She turned it off which was for Max a signal to stop banging on the door and that she was awake. “I’ll wait by the door for you,” was the last thing she heard before he walked back into his own room. 

Slowly Ariella got up, exhausted from the lack of sleep because of last nights events. She still smiled at the thought that Max and she were actually some sort of friends now. 

She quickly took a shower, fixed her make-up and her daily attire before she got some granola and yoghurt out of the small hotel fridge and ate it while checking her phone. 

When it was time to leave, she put on her shoes, grabbed her coat from where she left it last night and exited her room where as promised Max was waiting for her. 

He looked a little nervous.

“Goodmorning Maxy,” she said, earning herself an eyeroll from the Dutch. “Mornin’ sunshine,” he told sarcastically. But all Ari could do was smile as he had given her another nickname. He then turned to her and asked; “Can you see it? Is it obvious?”

Now that he said it, he wasn’t wearing his cap in his usual Max Verstappen way. His hair that was mostly slicked back under his cap was now brushed to the front to cover the cut that was above his eyebrow. And he did a pretty good job of masking it. 

“It’s fine. And don’t worry if someone notices, I told you I’d cover you.”

“Thank you.”

They smiled at each other before they started walking towards the elevator and to the hotel exit. There a taxi was waiting for them. The cab took them to the factory where they were greeted with a lot of nervous looks. As for once they weren’t blandly ignoring each other, but they were… laughing. Not only laughing but laughing… with each other. 

The whole day the RBR crew was on edge, because they felt like at every moment a bomb would be dropped and they would be back to hating each other, but that never happened. The mood was lifted even more when they realised that Jos nor Bruce weren’t going to come to the factory that day, lifting a whole lot of weight off their shoulders. 

They were having lunch when a crew member came in. “Max, Ariella, Christian wants to see you guys in his office.”

Both drivers gave each other a look of ‘what did you do’ before they hesitantly stood up and made their way to their team principle.

When they walked in Christian greeted them with a smile. “Max, Ariella. Take a seat.”

They gave each other one last look before they both took their places at Christian’s desk. Looking at him with question in their eyes. 

“You’re probably wondering why I asked you here,” the Brit begun, “But it’s nothing special. Someone warned me that you guys were actually getting along together and I wanted to see it with my own eyes.”

They looked at Christian somewhat baffled before they started laughing. “Are you serious?” Max questioned while he continued laughing. 

“I really thought we did something wrong,” Ariella then said while she leaned back in her chair. 

Christian smiled at the two. “Yeah, it’s not every day that teammates are ignoring each other for one day and are all smiles together the next. What happened.”

“Well,” Max said while falling back into his nervous habit. He lifted the cap he was wearing off his head, brushed his hair back with his hand before putting his cap back on. Ariella looked at him in shock, but the Dutchman himself didn’t even notice it before it was too late. “We-“

“Max what’s that?” Christian interrupted Max before he could continue, and that was the moment Max realised the mistake he had made. His laughing demeanour changed into one of fuck I messed up. He opened his mouth a couple of times to answer, but no words were coming out. That was until Ariella stepped in and started laughing.

“Oh my god I’ll just tell him. Somehow the elevator from the hotel stopped working so we had to take the stairs. But mister Verstappen here was so busy with checking his phone that he didn’t look at where he was going and he went flat out head first onto the stairs. Did I mention they are made of cement? Yeah, it wasn’t until his fabulous teammate came to his rescue to stop the bleeding. Luckily we didn’t have to go to the hospital for his little stunt.”

Max looked at Ariella with a face of disbelief. “Are you serious? You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“I’m sorry, but what were you gonna say? That you got into a fight with someone and you got punched so hard you got a cut. No thanks, nobody would’ve believed that anyways.”

They both turned back to Christian, who seemed to buy their lie this time. He chuckled a little. “Max, please watch where you’re going next time.”

Max smiled back at that. “I will, sorry.”

“You’re lucky we already did all the media work earlier this week. But for now. It’s nice to see the two of you getting along. Please don’t ruin it.”

“We won’t,” they both said at the same time.

Christian gave them one last smile before he turned back to his computer. “Okay, well. Go back to work the two of you. I’ll see you around.”

“Okay!”

“Bye Christian.”

They quickly got up and left the office. When the doors were shut and they were out of ear sight from their team principle they leant against the wall looking at each other in disbelieve. 

“Oh my god. From everything you could’ve come up with I fell down the fucking stairs?”

Ariella giggled. “Watch your mouth, Maxy. Or next time I will just let you skiwi down the stairs and I’ll won’t come to your rescue.”

Max gave her a bland look. “Please never say that again.”

“I won’t make any promises.”

The rest off the day went by smoothly, and so long everybody bought their lie. The time of truth will come. Ariella knew it. But for now, this is what Max wanted and what she will respect. 

That night when Max and Ari returned to their hotel, they had some drinks at the bar together before they went back to their rooms. When Ariella laid in her bed smiling up at the ceiling, she suddenly couldn’t wait for the season to start. As the Australian Grand Prix was creeping closer, and she couldn’t wait how many more friends she would make, and how much fun she was going to have with the friends that she already did make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation!  
> \--  
> Kop dicht! (Shut up)
> 
> Ondankbaar sekreet. Ik heb alles voor je gedaan en dan durf je noch zo tegen mij te praten! (Ungratefull twat. After everything I've done for you you dare to speak to me this way)
> 
> Ik zie je morgen wel weer. Als je morgen weer zo tegen me durft te praten is dit nog maar het minste van wat er zal gebeuren. (I'll see you tomorrow. If you speak to me like this again this will the least of what's going to happen to you.)


	9. What I'd do without you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the little Max & Ariella saga, and we're immediatly jumping some races and are going straight to the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix. Is it okay for me to take some of Hamilton's wins away for the story's sake? Of course it is.

“Okay Ariella. Hamilton is 1.9 seconds behind you. I repeat, Hamilton is 1.9 seconds behind you.”

“But I thought Max was behind me?”

“Hamilton went past as he has fresher tires. Keep an eye out on the straights. We only have two more laps to go. You can win this Ariella. Keep pushing.”

With that the radio went silent and Ariella cursed a little bit under her breath. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK.

She looked into her rear-view mirror and it was indeed Hamilton who was creeping closer to her on the straight of the Hungaroring and not Max. 

“I need more power!”

“Copy. Understood.”

She braked late into the first corner. Trying to keep the pushing Mercedes at distance as she blasted through the last two laps of the Grand Prix. With Max having tire troubles he had no other choice then to let his teammate by. And together they had been able to keep the race at a solid 1-2 for RBR. That was until the Mercedes strategists decided to pit Hamilton one more time. The Brit has since then been able to catch up with the two young drivers in no time. And right now, with him passing Max Ariella was growing more and more anxious with every millisecond that passed. 

There was no way she was going to give up her maiden Formula 1 victory that easily. No, he had to come fight her for it.

When Ariella went into the final lap of the race, Hamilton was only 0.8 seconds away from her. Meaning he was going to have DRS on the straights. She saw his rear wing open and pushed on with full force. Again, braking way later than the Mercedes did as she made her way through the first sector of the circuit. She knew she had to gain her advantage in the corners, so she did just that. She went in with full speed, and seeing Hamilton struggling behind her made her more determined than ever. 

When she entered the last sector Ari positioned herself low in her car, trying to gain as much speed as she entered the straight.

And that’s when she saw it, that damned chequered flag. She pushed one more time before she passed the line. 

“P1! P1!” was the first thing she heard over the radio. With the adrenaline clouding her mind, she pushed the radio button and screamed at the top of her longs. 

“HAHAHA YES! YES! Oh my god guys what a RACE!” she let out some more squeals of excitement before she let go of the button. That’s when Christian’s voice came through on the radio. 

“Ari what an amazing drive. You can really be proud of yourself as you can call yourself the first ever woman to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix and it was nothing but deserved.”

Tears sprung into her eyes at those words. “Thank you Christian! And thank you EVERYONE back there! You guys deserve this just as much. Thank you all so, so much from the bottom of my heart!”

She let out some more squeals over the radio before she pulled up into Parc Fermé. With shaking hands she took out the steering wheel and unbuckled herself before climbing out of the car, almost falling over a couple of times because of the mix of adrenaline and excitement that was still running through her body. 

When she finally was able to get out, she jumped of off the car and stumbled over to the crew members who were all waiting for her. She jumped into their arms as they let out cheers of joy. Hugging and slamming her helmet in the process. When she turned around, she could see that Max had also made his way out of his car at the P3 sign. And even though she knew the Dutchman was disappointed in his own result, he turned around and ran to his teammate. When they met in the middle, they jumped into each other’s arms before they started jumping up and down like children in a candy store. Max hugged her closely, turning up his visor and looking her in the eyes. “You did it you crazy son of a bitch!” he said while patting the top of her helmet. 

“I know! I can’t believe it!”

“You better do, because after tonight’s celebration you’re probably going to think it was all a drunken dream.”

She laughed at that. Made some more excited jumps before finally finding the strength to get the helmet off of her head and putting it back on the car. 

A lot of drivers came by. Lewis was the first to pull her in for another hug and congratulating her on her first win, and then even more came. All the men came to congratulate her. Some being more excited for her than the other. Daniel lifted her up and spun her around before putting her back on the ground, while people as Sergio Perez only gave her a quick handshake before walking away again. 

The most special one was the last person to come and congratulate her. After Lando gave her a quick high five and a hug, Charles Leclerc came strolling towards her, and before she even had time to register what happened she was engulfed by another hug. But this time, the hug lingered on a little more than with the rest of the men. When they pulled away, he looked her straight in the eyes before saying; “Congratulations on your first F1 victory madame.”

She giggled, oh my god she giggled, before she slapped his arm theatrically. “Well merci monsieur, but next time I’m not expecting you to let me pass that easily. I was expecting more of a fight.”

Charles chuckled, and Ariella had to do her best not to blush. “Don’t worry. I won’t. But still, congratulations Ari! You deserve it.” He gave her one last quick hug before he walked away. She stood there frozen for a little bit before Max came to her side, bumping into her with his shoulder before laughing at the dumbfounded expression Ari was giving him. 

The post-race interviews went by like blur, and the next thing she knew she was called up onto the podium, standing proudly on top of the 1 and under the flag of her country. When the American and Austrian national anthem’s chimed through the speakers. She took a moment to let it all sink in. She looked at the crowd, her team. Everyone that was standing there looking at her. This was a moment she will never ever in her whole life forget. 

When the anthems came to an end the trophy was given to her and she lifted it up as high as she could. After that Ari was quick to get her champagne bottle and shook it hard before she sprayed most the contents onto the two drivers next to her and the crowd underneath her. When the bottles finally stopped spraying she lifted it to her mouth and drunk as much as she could without gagging. Some pictures were taken, and she couldn’t wait before all the formalities to be done so she could party the rest of the night away like there was going to be no tomorrow. 

\--

“How do I look?”

Ariella walked out of the bathroom of her hotel in a dark blue dress that was fitting around her waist and hanging loosely till just above her knee. She had curled her hair into some wavy strands and put on just enough make-up to make all the guys go wow.  
Max looked up from where he was lying on Ariella’s bed with his phone in his hands, already ready to go to the party being held that night at the local lounge.

“For the thousand time Ari you look amazing. Now can we please go? I think the taxi has been waiting downstairs for like an hour.”

Ariella looked at the time in shock. “Oh my god Max why didn’t you say so!” she said as she started running round to get her heels, purse and all the other things a girl needs to take with her to a lounge. Max only laughed at her reaction.

“Meh, I didn’t wanted to ruin your girly-girl time. Oh and by the way, some drivers are coming to the lounge too.”

This got Ariella to turn around, eyeing Max up suspiciously. “What did you do?”

The Dutchman stood op, casually grabbing Ariella’s purse from the bed and throwing it at her, thank god for their trained reflexes, before he put his hands in his pockets and balancing up and down on his heels. 

“Uhm, they wanted to come too. George, Alex, Daniel, Pierre, Charles, Carlos, Nico, Lando.”

“Of course you would invite Lando- wait. Did you say Charles?” Ariella was glad that she put enough foundation on so that Max wouldn’t be able to see the blush appearing on his face. A sly grin appeared on Max’s face. “Yeah, why, is that a problem?”

Ari shrugged. “No, no. Not at all.”

“I already thought so but well, since you’re ready.” Max walked towards the door, opening it and taking a bow before saying “After you, my lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It may not be as focused on Ari & Max as the last couple of chapters have been, but this was just a happy piece for me to write. 
> 
> What happened at the party will be a story for another time, because after this we're going to the Belgian GP 2019. So yeah, I hope you all are ready!


	10. What is this feeling?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first part of this story is small tribute to Anthoine Hubert. A life lost too early. Also, this could be a heavy emotional chapter for some readers. You have been warned.

It was just after qualifying that it happened. The terrible accident that took the life of someone way too young. Even though Ariella had never met de man, she still felt the grief of everyone that did. They had all grown up together, raced together, and the emotions that were on track ever since that terrible accident could be felt for days. 

On the day of the race, just before, she stood next to her fellow drivers as they held a minute of silence, and laid some flowers at the place where it all had happened. 

Even though she had never personally known Anthoine Hubert, he would never be forgotten. 

\--

“Fuck…”

“What is it?”

“I think I forgot my phone at the garage.”

Max gave Ariella an eyeroll while the blonde was furiously looking into her pockets and feeling all around her body for her phone. “How can you forget your phone?”

Ariella’s head shot up, the elevator doors opening. “I don’t know… I didn’t really need it till now. I have to go back.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Max was holding the doors open with his arm, eyeing the blonde, waiting for her response. “No, I think I’ll go alone. We’re on the same flight back tomorrow right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Ari turned around and started running. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Max shook his head and let out a small laugh. “Text me when you get back in your room.”

Before she left the building she turned around, waving. “I will! Goodnight!”

\--

Trucks were already being loaded in when Ariella arrived at the paddock. She got all kinds of weird looks while she ran to the Red Bull garage, where her phone should be. 

She ran past the motorhomes and that’s when things got quiet, the people around her becoming less and less till she was all alone. 

Feeling a little out of breath, she walked past the Mercedes garage to the Red Bull one, until the sound of sobs stopped her in her tracks. Standing still she looked around. 

Who can still be here?

Ariella started walking slowly, following the sobs to the Ferrari garage. She hesitated for a bit. If anyone found her walking into the Ferrari territory she would be a goner. Already seeing the headlines. 

**Red Bull driver sneaking into Ferrari garage at night!**

But when the sobs got louder, all hesitation slipped out her body. Making sure that no one was watching her she ran in, almost tripping over some lose cables lying around in the dark. Steadying herself against a wall she looked around. To her right was Vettel’s garage and to her left Leclerc’s. Standing in the middle she listened and she automatically went to the left as the sounds came from that direction. 

Slow but steady she used her hands to make her way through the garage, and suddenly in the dark she could see vaguely see someone sitting there. 

“Charles?”

He was sitting on the ground against one of the desks with his knees pulled up against his chest, his head buried between them. His head shot up at the sound of his name, and within seconds a Charles grabbed his phone and used his flashlight to see whom the intruder was. 

“What are you doing here?” came the hoarse voice from the Monegasque whom put his phone down and turned the flashlight off, not really wanting the blonde to see him like this. 

Ariella just huffed. “I could ask the same about you.”

“But I asked first.”

Okay we were going to play that game. Ari balanced on the heels of her feet and folded her hands behind her back. “Well, I forgot my phone at the garage and came to get it. But then I heard someone crying over here so I came to look who it was.” Now it was Charles’ turn to huff in response. “How can you forget your phone?” he said.

Ariella groaned. “I don’t know, but now it’s your turn. What are you doing here?” emphasising on the you. 

Charles went quiet. His mouth opening and closing a couple of times. “I…” he started, but all words got stuck in his throat. He could hear Ariella shuffling around for a bit, and when he looked up he could see that she had kneeled down and was now sitting on the ground only a couple of meters away from her. 

“Why do you care anyway?”

Charles mentally slapped himself. He didn’t mean to sound that rude, but when he heard Ariella let out a small HA he knew she wasn’t that bothered anyways. “Well it isn’t everyday that you walk into the garage at 10:30 in the evening and find someone sobbing.”

The blonde scooted a bit closer until she was sitting next to him, letting her back rest against the same desk Charles was sitting against. “Does it have something to do with what happened?”

This had all the tears spring back into Charles’ eyes. Was it that obvious?

Yesterday that terrible accident happened. Antoine was no more. They had been friends, not as good as Pierre and Antoine have been, but they still knew each other pretty well. The accident and the passing of his friend wasn’t the only thing that was going on in the Monegasque’s head. Today he got his first ever Formula 1 win. Something he should be happy about, but frankly… he wasn’t. Aside from his team, the people that should’ve been there celebrating with him weren’t there. His father, Jules… they weren’t here. Today has been an awful reminder that they weren’t around anymore. That they couldn’t see that today he’s raced his heart out to become first, that everything they’ve done for him in the past had payed off. They weren’t here. And they never will be again. 

An uncontrolled sob came from his throat, and he fully burst into tears once again. He tried to hold it in as he buried his head in his knees once more, but the more he tried to hold it in the more strangled sound came from his mouth. 

“Shit… I’m so sorry for saying it like that. Come here.”

Ariella threw her arms around him and pulled him against her chest, shushing him and whispering that everything would be alright. 

Charles let everything out, not caring anymore. “It… it’s just… I…” he tried, but every time the sobs would take over. Ariella softly started to brush his hair. “Don’t talk, it’s okay. Talking can come later.”

And that’s how they stayed for a while. Charles letting everything out and Ariella mumbling sweet things to him. 

After a while, Charles’ sobs started to die down, and tiredness started to wash over him. Suddenly he felt heavy in Ariella’s arms, and the blonde had to do her best to keep him upright. “Charles?” she whispered in his hair, still soothingly running a hand over his back.

“Hmm?”

“How long have you been sitting here?”

Charles moved away a little bit and looked up at Ariella, and through the darkness in the room she could still see bits of his face. He was broken. His eyes were bloodshot red and by the bags under it, Ari could tell he hasn’t had a lot of sleep last night. 

“I dunno…” he started. “I haven’t really left the track after the race. So after everyone went back to their hotel I went here. I came to get some stuff but ended up… here.” He gestured to the ground around them. Ariella sighed. She let go of Charles, making sure he was resting against the desk again so that he wouldn’t fall over, and stood up. “I’m going to grab my phone real quick, wait for me okay?”

Charles nodded and Ariella carefully walked out of the Ferrari garage, making sure no prying eyes would see her walk out. Without Ariella’s presence, Charles could finally think. 

Even though his mind was occupied with other things at the moment, there was one thought that was stronger than the dark ones clouding his being. 

_What the fuck just happened?_

From all the people that could’ve walked into his garage, it had to be Ariella. And instead of telling her out, he cried his heart out to the girl he’s met on the airport. Something about her was just so comforting, and he felt like he could let it all out. But what if he’s made a mistake? They should’ve been rivals after all. Why was she being so friendly towards him?

That she was being friendly towards him wasn’t weird, because they have been friends ever since that first meeting on the airport and watching that movie together on the airplane, but still… why? 

His mind was growing more foggy with every second he was left alone. The dark thoughts in his head starting to take over. 

What if-

“Okay, are you ready?”

Before his mind could fully wander off again, Ariella was back. She was slowly walking towards him so that she could give him a hand to help him up from the ground. 

“What do you mean?” Charles asked while the fog in his head started to clear a little bit.

“Bringing you back to the hotel, silly.”

He shook his head, still finding it hard to register what she had just said. “I can get there by my own.”

Ariella snorted. “No you don’t, now let me help you.” With this being said, Ariella grabbed both of his arms and started to pull him up from the ground. The first time to no avail, as Charles wasn’t really trying to get up himself. The second time he did, but because Ariella pulled him up with full force they almost went right back to the ground. 

It took Charles a while to steady himself, and Ariella held both his arms to help him remain his posture. 

Ariella looked up at Charles and saw that he was really trying his best to focus on the world around him, his eyes narrowing and widening every so often to try and be able to see clearly. 

Worriedly, Ariella took his hands in hers, squeezing them a little to get Charles’ attention. 

He looked at her, and Ariella could see that he tried to stay in the real world, not getting lost in his own mind again.

“Charles?”

“Yeah, I’m… fine. Were in the same hotel right?” he said hurriedly. 

“We are, yes.”

Ariella didn’t let go of his hands when she started walking, trying to see if he could walk by himself. The first three steps were a bit wobbly, but after they’ve left the garage and got outside it went a little bit better. The fresh air really doing wonders for Charles as he inhaled deeply. 

Letting go of his hands, Ariella looked around to see if anybody had just seen her coming out of the Ferrari garage, but there was no one around. She was safe for now.

Turning back to Charles, she gave him one last worried look before she signalled for him to start walking. The Monegasque complied without saying a word, and silently they walked out of the paddock together, back to their hotel.

\--

They went up to Charles’ hotel room together, Ariella not really being comfortable letting the Monegasque be all by himself. The trip back to their temporary stay only making her feel more worried, as Charles completely zoned out a couple of times.  
Charles opened the door to his room and went inside. Ariella followed him closely as he let himself fall onto the bed. He threw his arm over his eyes as the blonde softly closed the door. 

“Charles?” she softly asked as she moved over to the bed and sat down by Charles’ tired figure. He moved his arm up a little bit so that one eye was peeking out from under his arm. Ariella nervously started fidgeting with the hem of her sweater. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay tonight?”

Charles shrugged while removing the arm that covering his eyes. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked the blonde. “I think so.”

“But I want you to be sure.”

The Monegasque sighed, looking down at the sheets. “I don’t know,” he whispered quietly. 

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

Charles’ eyes hesitantly looked back into Ariella’s eyes, and Ariella took that as a silent yes. She sat down next to him on the bed, and if Charles had thought anything different about the whole ordeal he could’ve stopped her right there and then. But he didn’t. “C’mon, we’re going to try and get some shuteye.”

She gestured for Charles to go lie down on the spot where the bed was not so neatly made and Charles obliged, Ariella following him right behind. She turned the lights off and all Charles could see was a vague light in the room and hearing her type away some on her phone. 

_ >maxie, i’m back at the hotel_

_what, u only now got ur phone back? <_

_> its a long story, i’ll tell u another time_

_u good? <_

_> yeh I’m fine. just wanted 2 let u know I was back _

Ariella decided that that was enough for Max to know right now. She had other things to worry about. The blonde dropped her phone on the nightstand and turned around in the bed. When she made herself comfortable she opened her eyes, and saw Charles already half asleep facing her. With al his might he tried to keep his eyes open, but to no avail. 

Ariella gave him a quick smile before softly lying her hand down on his arm. His eyes fluttered open once again, and Ariella could hear a soft “Merci,” come from his barely moving mouth. She squeezed his arm a little bit. “It’s no problem Charlie, now sleep.” 

And that was all Charles needed to let himself fall into a restless slumber that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for part 2.


End file.
